c Law; that
the proposed act of the Legislature would not be rendered any more
binding by reason of being called a solemn act, and that it might be
repealed by any subsequent Legislature. Much argument was expended
upon this point, but the general judgment was that an act of the
Legislature, made in pursuance of such an understanding with Congress,
was in the nature of a compact which, without discussing the question
of power, would certainly be regarded as binding upon the State. With
this understanding, Congress passed a bill admitting the State, but the
vote in both branches was divided on the line of party.

This action was accomplished late in January (1867), and on the 29th
of that month the President vetoed the bill. He objected especially
to the clause just referred to, because it was an addition to the
enabling Act which Congress had no moral right to make, and because
it required of Nebraska a condition not theretofore required of States,
--contradicting flatly the declaration of the first section of the
bill, in which the State was declared to be "admitted into the Union
upon an equal footing with the original States in all respects
whatever." He argued that the imposition of the condition prescribed
in the bill, and its acceptance by the Legislature, was practically
a change in the organic law of the State without consulting the people,
which he regarded as an innovation upon the safe practice of the
Government. But his arguments fell upon unwilling ears, and the bill
was passed over the veto by a vote of thirty to nine in the Senate,
and in the House by one hundred and twenty to forty-three.

Colorado did not fare so well. The bill was passed by both branches
of Congress, though not with so full a vote nor with so much confidence
in the propriety and necessity of the measure. Precisely the same
condition in regard to suffrage was inserted as in the case of the
Nebraska bill. It met with a prompt veto, more elaborately argued and
presented with more confidence by the President than in the case of
Nebraska. He said, "I cannot perceive and reason for the admission of
Colorado that would not apply with equal force to nearly every other
Territory now organized, and I submit whether, if this bill becomes a
law, it will be possible to resist the logical conclusion that such
Territories as Dakota, Montana, and Idaho must be received as States
whenever they present themselves, without regard to the number